Civil Eats » Jen Daltonhttp://civileats.com
Promoting critical thought about sustainable agriculture and food systemsTue, 31 Mar 2015 16:58:58 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Faces and Visions of the Food Movement: Farmer Michael Foleyhttp://civileats.com/2014/07/11/faces-and-visions-of-the-food-movement-farmer-michael-foley/
http://civileats.com/2014/07/11/faces-and-visions-of-the-food-movement-farmer-michael-foley/#commentsFri, 11 Jul 2014 11:58:15 +0000http://civileats.com/?p=20271Michael Foley is a Mendocino County, California-based farmer dedicated to helping young farmers find access to land and education. He wears many hats, including: farmers’ market manager, Vice President of the association behind that farmers’ market (MCFARM), and President of the Little Lake Grange. A former professor of politics at the Catholic University of America, Foley is also... Read More

]]>Michael Foley is a Mendocino County, California-based farmer dedicated to helping young farmers find access to land and education. He wears many hats, including: farmers’ market manager, Vice President of the association behind that farmers’ market (MCFARM), and President of the Little Lake Grange. A former professor of politics at the Catholic University of America, Foley is also one the founders of the Grange Farm School and a mentor farmer at Brookside Farm, an innovative teaching farm. As you might expect, his focus is on the needs of the small farmer.

How did you get started working in the food system?

Since I was a young child I had a longing for a farm, but I ended up as an academic teaching political science for 20 years. One of my daughters was dating a farmer and another went to the apprenticeship program in agroecology at UC Santa Cruz. I visited her a few times; I also visited her boyfriend on a horse driven farm in Western Massachusetts. It was gorgeous. I came away thinking, “this is what I want to do!” I read some books–Eliot Coleman, Joel Salatin, etc., and became more inspired. I enjoy that there’s continuous problem solving, and something new to do every day. I started looking for land and during the process a friend lent me two acres on her family’s estate, one of the last places of beauty in mini-mansion-laden exurban southern Maryland, and I started market gardening. Allegra, my daughter, came out the first year and helped with the CSA and shared what she knew. A few years later an opportunity came to buy a place out in Willits, California, where two of my daughter were living and starting families. We bought a farm and brought the name Green Uprising Farm with us from Maryland.

What inspires you to do the work that you do?

Well, working with young people, that’s what I loved most about teaching. And, I have six kids! What really got me going was working with WWOOFers our second year. All of a sudden we were meeting all these young people who really wanted the hands-on experience. So we began thinking of this place as a school and we also began to see young people who couldn’t stay because there wasn’t land or opportunity, so it became a passion of mine to do something about that.

What has been your biggest success working in the food system? What has been your most difficult challenge?

The answer to both is the Grange Farm School. The idea for the California State Grange to support the farm school was brought up at the 2011 membership convention by Damian Parr, a young Ag Educator and Grange member enthusiastic about the potential of the Grange. He wanted to do a number of things, one of which involved production farming, so some of our members at the convention got really excited. A small group of us here started meeting about it and looking for property. Ridgewood Ranch came up as a willing host. So we began drawing up plans for the farm school mostly modeled on the UCSC Agroecology Program, an intensive seven-month live-in internship with the option of a second year where you take classes in sustainable agriculture.

We also really want to educate the whole farmer: Teach new farmers how to manage, finance, do some engine repair, and welding. And we’ll tie into Live Power Community Farm for those who might want training in using horses. That will be important in the future. So we have seven acres for a field for farming and small livestock. We have an old apple and pear orchard with some cherry trees with room to grow.

At first we called it the California State Grange Ag School of the Arts. The arts are the key, you need a feel for it, you need to be skilled at multiple things—which is what people are looking for.

What do you think is some of the most exciting work going on in our food system at large?

My bias is the enthusiasm of so many new farmers. They are mostly young people, I’m an old guy, though still considered a “new farmer” according to the USDA. But there are so many young people, shored up by the Greenhorns, trying to help and support them, working with Granges as a place where people in rural communities can get support. The new Farmers Guild movement in California is an old term, [but it] is mostly a young farmers networking movement.

What do you think is the role of grassroots communities in changing the food system? Policy makers? Businesses?

There has got to be a surge of community grassroots activism to keep this thing moving. I feel like we’re under siege. The laws, instead of allowing us to grow food on a small scale locally and share and sell to our neighbors, are getting stricter, with some exceptions like the Cottage Food Law.

The whole food safety movement is so overblown and creates new hurdles for farmers in both paperwork, cost, and worries. I really think we need community activism to deal with local public and environmental health agencies in California, [and] with Departments of Agriculture both State and National to try to find room for small farmers.

My wife and I were a part of an effort to create a new law that would make it possible for home dairies to sell to neighbors [in California]. Now, in order to sell milk, you need a quarter of a million dollars to invest in a plant. But we lost. The people in the Ag Committee were heavily lobbied by the Western Dairymen who use small diaries as a scapegoat. Most of the policies they have supported, like on lagoon water, waste water, etc. are policies the big guys can handle but the smaller dairies see as a burden. Their tactic is to divide and conquer.

What needs to happen for the regulatory system to be more friendly to small food producers?

I’m really discouraged with the legislative process at the state level and of course nationally. It’s just broken, broken, broken. I think if policy makers could become aware of the fact that a lot of the policy they are making is moot because people don’t abide or regulators turn the other way, maybe we can get some change. There’s also change possible at local level by just hammering away at local agencies.

Do you see yourself as part of a food movement? If so, what do you think that movement needs to do, be or have to be more effective?

If we’re talking about policy, despite what I said, I do believe in community organizing 101. You need bodies. You need organizing. Some of that applies to just growing and producing food. We need people who are networked with long-term commitment to support this. We also need long-term advocacy support. On a broader scale, we need people to stick with it. The nice part of farming is it does tie you in there, at least for a while. As a market manager, I see people come and go, but in large part, they’re sticking it out and that keeps the movement alive.

Are there any foods you love to eat that don’t perfectly align with your politics–your “guilty pleasure” food from a justice or sustainability perspective?

Avocados, Mexican limes. A lot would say coffee but as an academic, I looked at small-scale peasant coffee producers and I’m impressed with the Equal Exchange efforts there. So I don’t feel bad on a social justice perspective but from a carbon footprint one, yes. I’m also addicted to out of season chilies.

]]>http://civileats.com/2014/07/11/faces-and-visions-of-the-food-movement-farmer-michael-foley/feed/0Faces & Visions of the Food Movement: Nona Evanshttp://civileats.com/2014/01/20/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-nona-evans/
http://civileats.com/2014/01/20/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-nona-evans/#commentsMon, 20 Jan 2014 09:00:43 +0000http://civileats.com/?p=19430Nona Evans, the Executive Director of Whole Kids Foundation, the newest philanthropic endeavor of Whole Foods Market, has a longstanding passion for improving the experience of children’s education, and a commitment to the importance of nutrition and access to healthy food choices for all. After nearly two decades in retail design, operations and marketing, Evans... Read More

]]>Nona Evans, the Executive Director of Whole Kids Foundation, the newest philanthropic endeavor of Whole Foods Market, has a longstanding passion for improving the experience of children’s education, and a commitment to the importance of nutrition and access to healthy food choices for all.

After nearly two decades in retail design, operations and marketing, Evans puts the core principles of experiential branding to work as the leader of Whole Kids Foundation, which launched in July 2011. Driven by a belief that the best way to insure a bright future is to inspire it in young people, she has spent much of her career focusing on innovative partnerships that improve education and support healthier foodservice programs in schools. Evans has been with Whole Foods Market for 12 years, most recently serving as the Global Executive Marketing Coordinator. She has led the Foundation from its inception. Since that time, they’ve served, 2,237,048 students, created 2,678 school salad bars, funded 1,605 school gardens, and granted over $9,662,176 in funds.

What issues have you been focused on?

There are two things that we stay laser focused on: Creating excitement about vegetables and vegetable consumption for kids. The other thing is convincing adults that when kids are given good choices they will make good choices. Some parents say, “Oh my kid won’t touch a vegetable, but they will. Kids love to make healthy choices if you give them a chance.

What inspires you to do this work?

The thing that most inspires me in life is helping people find their path. Some years ago I realized the same way I did that in a company applied to kids. When you help kids expand their horizons you get a greater return on the investment. Kids are sponges ready for new ideas to explore and it’s this capacity in kids that inspires me the most.

What motivates you to do this work?

I’m motivated by the enthusiasm that comes back to us for our work with kids. The first time they get to nurture a seed to a plant and try whatever they’ve grown and discover it’s delicious. There’s a magic and surprise in their hearts that wakes me up everyday and keeps me from going to sleep.

What’s your overall vision?

Our work is really about improving children’s nutrition. The reason that I’m so personally passionate about children’s nutrition is so that our children can realize their fullest potential and be the leaders for the world we want in our future.

From my perspective, if you look out 10 or 20 years, it’s where adults are far, far healthier than they are today and we naturally make a connection between our health and what we eat. And, that we have more control over that. All it takes for us to be a vibrant community, then we’ll have more momentum. Our economic health, our community health, it all comes from our own vitality.

What books and/or blogs are you reading right now?

Civil Eats of course. I travel a lot and when I’m at the airport I always pick up something new to read. I enjoy Scientific American and National Geographic, too, because they are both examples of what happens when you follow your child-like curiosity.

Who’s in your community?

We’re so fortunate to have what I call a very collaborative community. The biggest piece of which are schools, the kids, teachers, and parents that make up a district. There are others that work in our space, Deb at Food Corps, Anne Cooper, they are truly first hand experts in the work we do. It’s interesting, I often talk about the work we’re doing and our focus on children’s nutrition and the bigger issue is childhood obesity. I think of Whole Kids Foundation as a link between groups that are making a difference.

What are your commitments?

From a standpoint of Whole Kids Foundation, fund salad bar equipment and training for schools. At the end of 2013, at 3,000 across the country, we’re funding school gardens in the quest for sustainability. We’ve just started a program to train teachers on their own health and wellness, the Healthy Teachers Program, which is really exciting. If a teacher doesn’t reinforce those lessons, we’ve missed a point.

In leading the organization, I’m most committed to collaboration. It’s really going to take us all doing our part for us to all make the change we’re all invested in.

What are your goals?

Our goal is to increase food and vegetable consumption in kids. It’s the tactic we’re most aggressively measuring. And, to improve teacher health and wellness. If we do those two things, the environment we work in becomes healthier. Out next goal is to launch a program that seeks out innovation in this space and allows us to support the innovators. Our goal is to teach the kids today and the generations after them healthy eating habits so in generations to come our headlines aren’t filled with what they’re filled with today.

What does change look like to you?

Change for us looks like fresh vegetables in the cafeteria at school and beautiful robust gardens at schools that are integrated in the curriculum. The other piece our crew is passionate about is choice. That’s one of the reasons we chose salad bars as a starting place. We know when you empower kids with a choice, we’re all amazed at their capacity to chose health. I remember when Chef Ann put salad bars in Boulder schools, no one would have guessed garbanzo beans would be the most popular item. When we’re courageous enough to give kids real choices that reflects real change.

Regarding the practicalities of enacting change, what planning is involved? What kind of outreach?

One of the things that has surprised me the most about playing in the space with other change agents, the ability to stay flexible and to be opportunistic is just as important as long range strategic panning. I have no idea on a daily basis whom I will meet and what I will learn that can have impact, so If I’m flexible enough our capacity for change is exponential. The outreach is really the discipline to make time for exploratory conversations. One of my role models told me that conversations are free. I think that’s beautiful. I’m always amazed where I find those pearls of wisdom that change the whole view of what we’re doing.

What projects and people have you got your eye on or are you impressed by?

Most recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Steven Rich, he’s a super hero. He’s a teacher in the Bronx, teaching 10th, 11th, and 12th grade daily and involved with another school. Most of his kids are out of foster care, homeless or judicated youth. He has found that gardening is the thing that cracks open their spirit and allows them to soar. Being in the Bronx he’s found a way to do it in the classroom. He likes to say his kids drug him into the gardening. He’s got into the spirit of it and he lost 110 pounds.

We’re also inspired by Mud Baron, his real name is Matt. He’s a passionate leader and teacher in Pasadena, the first student run CSA in the country at Muir Ranch. His dad was a flower farmer and he has a philosophy that a third of what they plant are flowers because they open more doors than vegetables. It helps them at the farmers market start conversations about what they are doing.

A team at Madison Wisconsin school district made a commitment to put salad bars in their school and started the first 10.

The thing that constantly impresses me is the creativity in this world in terms of how to nurture and care for our kids.

Where do you see the state of agriculture/food policy in the next five-10 years? Is real policy change a real possibility?

I will say we are not as deeply involved in policy change as we are in systems change. But yes, I do think it’s possible. This time we’re in is teaching all of us, our political friends included, the importance of our personal health. It’s just a baby step from there to the connections our food makes. Hopefully we’ll have a Farm Bill, and what the next children’s nutrition legislation like will be really important. We really need to re-think how we handle commodities and there are some really smart people engaged in that.

What does the food movement need to do, be or have to be more effective?

In my opinion it needs to simplify and be direct in what we’re asking for. One of the best examples, Salad Bar Nation, is a simple challenge to eat a salad every day. It came from people saying this is all well and good but what can I do. Even though these issues are complex, if we ask people for really specific support we’ll be amazed at what can happen.

What would you want to be your last meal on earth?

I love to garden, no surprise, so I think it would be an enormous salad with lots of fresh herbs from my spring garden with roasted root veggies and a hint of some wonderful local goat cheese.

]]>http://civileats.com/2014/01/20/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-nona-evans/feed/0Faces & Visions of the Food Movement: Kari Hamerschlaghttp://civileats.com/2013/10/08/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-kari-hamerschlag/
http://civileats.com/2013/10/08/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-kari-hamerschlag/#commentsTue, 08 Oct 2013 09:00:07 +0000http://civileats.com/?p=18979Kari Hamerschlag is a passionate advocate for healthy food policy and political action in the United States. She’s also a champion of a fair and just Federal Farm Bill. As the Senior Food and Agriculture Analyst at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), her work focuses on food and agriculture policy for local, healthy, organic, and sustainable options.... Read More

]]>Kari Hamerschlag is a passionate advocate for healthy food policy and political action in the United States. She’s also a champion of a fair and just Federal Farm Bill. As the Senior Food and Agriculture Analyst at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), her work focuses on food and agriculture policy for local, healthy, organic, and sustainable options.

She started her career 20 years ago as an organizer, researcher, and advocate for socially and environmentally sound development policy, mostly focused in Latin America. The agriculture branch of the EWG is best known for its extensive farm subsidy database and its voice for strong environmental health standards within agricultural policy.

What issues have you been focused on?

The number one thing I’ve been working on the past year is the Federal Farm Bill. I’ve worked over the last year to make a very bad bill a little better. My specific focus in California is to get the California delegation to step up and oppose cuts to conservation funding, support better conservation policy and crop insurance reform and increase funding for local, regional and organic agriculture programs. Right now, I’m finishing a report looking at how Farm Bill conservation program dollars are spent to address the nutrient and pesticide pollution that’s affecting California rivers and lakes. Locally, another focus of mine is the Oakland Food Policy Council. I also participate in the California Food Policy Council. That’s a new entity that brings together 20 or so food policy councils to share strategies and push for change at the state policy level.

What inspires you to do this work?

It changes day to day. I’m passionate about healthy and sustainable food. I’m inspired by the farmers that do the incredibly hard work to grow great tasting organic food and all the wonderful people in the food movement who are working so hard to improve our food system. Right now, fast food workers demanding the doubling of their wages is inspiring to me. The massive and growing movement to demand GE labeling is also incredibly inspiring to me. Two years ago, this movement barely existed.

What motivates you to do this work?

My outrage at how agribusiness and industrial farms are damaging the environment and public health with the crap they are putting in our food. I’m also appalled at their terrible treatment of workers and animals. I’m motivated because I know we can do so much better and that a shift to healthy and sustainable food production can solve so many problems at the same time. I want to be a part of the solution and want others to feel that way too.

What’s your overall vision?

A world where food is produced with fewer toxic chemicals, where farmers who grow food in a way that protects our natural resources are compensated fairly, and where healthy and sustainable food is accessible to all, which means workers need to be paid a living wage. In my vision of a healthy food system, people attach a much higher value to food that is produced in a better way. And people and policy makers are connecting the dots between eating healthy, feeling better and reducing rates of costly diet related illnesses. And everyone is consuming much less meat and processed food, and more fruits and vegetables and whole grains. I also have a vision of better polices that require companies and mega-farms to bear the cost of the harm they cause to the planet and people rather than the status quo where citizen’s are subsidizing these terrible practices.

What books and/or blogs are you reading right now?

I wish I had more time for books. I read Tom Philpott at Mother Jones; he’s such a great researcher and writer and so good with policy issues. I also love Twilight Greenaway, Mark Bittman, Marion Nestle, and Michele Simon. I read Civil Eats, Alternet, and US Food Policy and always read what NSAC puts out on food and farm policy. For my ag news, I read Chris Clayton at Progressive Farmer, the Hagstrom Report, and AgriPulse. And of course EWG’s Ag Mag.

Who’s in your community?

Cultivating community has always been important to me, in both my professional and personal life. I helped start a network of fabulous women working in food and ag in the Bay Area that has been incredibly rewarding and nurturing. I’m on the Oakland Food Policy Council and I have a great community of food justice activists there as well as around the state. I’m also connected with great colleagues around the country and a great community of friends in the Bay Area and Washington, D.C. where I used to live. I’m blessed to have so many awesome people in my life!

What are your commitments?

To stay engaged and keep the faith that we really can make the profound changes in our food system that are so necessary for the well-being of the planet. I’m committed to building stronger alliances and cultivating more unity in our food movement. I’m committed to helping young people get involved in this work because we need more warriors in the policy and political work.

What are your goals?

My goals are similar to my vision and commitments. To do all I can to make our food system healthier, more sustainable and fair. To help people get more involved at the policy and political level in order to create the transformative change we need in our food system.

What does change look like to you?

More democracy and less corporate influence in policy. More diversified farms growing food for local communities. A huge increase in the amount of land under organic production. Better working conditions for food sector workers, especially farm workers. Change is cleaner water that isn’t polluted by pesticides and chemical fertilizer. It’s a major reduction in corn production for ethanol. It’s the adoption of GE labeling laws and a ban on the next generation of herbicide tolerant GE crops. It’s tighter regulations and new requirements for independent studies on the safety of GE crops. It’s a farm bill that stops subsidizing environmental destruction.

Change is a major reduction in meat consumption and the banning of subtherapuetic antibiotics in meat production; Its more grassfed meat in the market and greater consumption of fruit and vegetables.

At the market level, change is a major shift in the buying and selling practices of the big companies like Walmart, Kellogg’s, and many others. I feel like it’s the large buyers who will have the biggest impact on how fast our food system shifts—and that depends on how fast consumers and shareholders step up and demand that change.

Regarding the practicalities of enacting change, what planning is involved? What kind of outreach?

We all need to get more political and step up our engagement with institutions, policy makers, and companies. We need to demand more and maybe even feel uncomfortable in that process. We need to be better organized, with more communication and unity of purpose. We need to identify more iconic campaigns—like GE labeling–that can mobilize and motivate a lot of people. These campaigns need to be winnable so that politicians and companies recognize our power, and we can build on our wins. Hopefully this will happen with the GE labeling initiative in Washington.

We need to keep doing outreach and education—and continue to mobilize consumers to demand healthy and sustainable food wherever they are; whether that’s in schools, stores, or with representatives in Congress. We need more people to pick up the phone and demand policies that will advance sustainable agriculture. We just had a big win getting the Monsanto Protection Act out of the Senate Bill, which really shows what happens when people act.

What projects and people have you got your eye on or are you impressed by?

In the GE space, I’m grateful for the organizing work Dave Murphy and Lisa Stokke are doing at Food Democracy Now, supporting GE state initiatives and mobilizing hundreds of thousands of people on GE issues nationally. Also, the Center for Food Safety gets huge credit for working on this issue for almost two decades now.

I have to highlight Anna Lappé who is such a great voice for our movement and so supportive of so many people’s efforts around food system work. She has done a phenomenal job educating people about the benefits of sustainable agriculture and debunking agribusiness talking points through her project Food Myth Busters.

Another is Food Policy Action, a new organization that scores legislators on their food votes. Ken Cook EWG President gets a lot of credit for making it happen.

I’m very excited about the California Food Policy Council—and Tiffany Nurrenbern and Michael Dimock at Roots of Change get a lot of credit for bringing so many councils together across the state.

Where do you see the state of agriculture/food policy in the next 5-10 years? Is real policy change a real possibility?

I do believe real policy change is possible. But given the dysfunction in Congress, I think there is more hope at the Administration level. Since we only have two more years left of this administration we need to step up the pressure, with many lines of attack.

I think the next big win will be on the GE labeling issue. It’s just a matter of time before we have a federal policy in place. But we need to stay vigilant because big food will try to water it down. I think we can make progress around stronger regulation of antibiotic use in animals, but only if there’s more market pressure. Policy will follow the market on this one. I’m hopeful we will see better regulation around GE crops as the negative impacts of herbicide tolerant GE crops becomes even more apparent.

As for farm bill or other policies that require Congressional action, I hope I’m wrong but I don’t think we’ll see much change given the deep dysfunction of that body. But we still must plug away to defend our wins, stop horrendous policy and change the terrible crop insurance subsidy policies that are sending billions of taxpayer dollars to big farms and crop insurance companies.

In the next 5-10 years, I think we’ll see a sea change in the private sector around purchasing. As we step up market campaigns and unleash the power of consumers, I am certain we will see major shifts in purchasing practices by restaurants, institutions, large grocers, and food companies. Companies are already under increased pressure on many fronts to deliver healthier ingredients, improve their environmental and social policies, increase their non-GE food sourcing, and provide healthier meat options. This is where the big change will occur. Government policy will follow the market. It’s not to say we should give up on government. We have to hold them accountable. But we need to act where we can have the biggest impact.

What does the food movement need to do, be or have to be more effective?

In order to wage these successful campaigns we need big money. We need foundations and wealthy individuals to fund longer-term three to five-year campaigns that bring together like-minded groups so that there’s less competition among groups for funding. The only way we are going to beat the formidable power of big food and big ag is to work together in a smart way. We can all play different roles, with complementary strategies but we need more coordination and unity of purpose. We need money to do that.

We need to keep exposing the lies coming out of the big ag front groups like the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance. We need to get more political—which likely means we need a lot more focus on building capacity in the food movement around how to engage in the political process. Many lack the skills, the political literacy. So we need to provide more tools and training for people to get engaged.

We need to make food a political issue. When was the last time you heard a food question in a presidential debate or on a political survey? We’ve made progress in the past few years getting food into the national debate and we need to keep building on this. One way to raise the food profile—and get politicians to care about our issues is to get more political groups like Move On and Democracy for America more engaged in food. Or create our own Food PACs. This is beginning to happen and we need to do more of that.

We also need to broaden our reach and connect with other movements that are fighting against many of the same corporate interests on similar but different issues, like chemical reform and climate change. But that will take time. For now, we need to unite the many disparate parts of our own movement.

What would you want to be your last meal on earth?

In honor of my Mom it would have to be a traditional Norwegian meal because that’s what we always eat on special occasions. Wild caught salmon, grilled, cucumber salad, potatoes, and green beans. Plus a glass of California Chardonnay … with a sip of tequila afterwards!

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]]>http://civileats.com/2013/10/08/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-kari-hamerschlag/feed/3Faces & Visions of the Food Movement: Samin Nosrathttp://civileats.com/2013/07/15/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-samin-nosrat/
http://civileats.com/2013/07/15/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-samin-nosrat/#commentsMon, 15 Jul 2013 09:11:46 +0000http://civileats.com/?p=18249Samin Nosrat creates community around food as a cook, writer and teacher in the Bay Area. From Chez Panisse to Tuscany, Piemonte to the northern coast of Iran, she has spent the past 14 years immersed in a life of cooking and learning beside groundbreaking chefs, home cooks, farmers, writers, and artists. Drawing on this broad... Read More

]]>Samin Nosrat creates community around food as a cook, writer and teacher in the Bay Area. From Chez Panisse to Tuscany, Piemonte to the northern coast of Iran, she has spent the past 14 years immersed in a life of cooking and learning beside groundbreaking chefs, home cooks, farmers, writers, and artists. Drawing on this broad spectrum of experience, she brings to her all of her varied work a sense of humor and joy as well as a deep desire to empower and encourage people to find their own comfortable place in the kitchen. She is currently at work on her first book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, to be published by Simon & Schuster in Spring 2015.

What issues have you been focused on?

All of my work as a cook, writer and teacher intersects around people and the community. I love encouraging people and taking care of them so they can take better care of themselves and each other.

What inspires you to do this work?

My inspiration comes from the people around me, from how good it feels for me to be good to my community and the desire to give that to as many people as possible. For me, because I happened to stumble into the world of food, it became my tool, but ultimately my work is about people.

What’s your overall vision?

To make people feel that they are a part of something larger than themselves, and to use food as my tool to do that. Creating connection is my ultimate goal. If I can create a space for people to feel more connected to each other and to where their food comes from, and help them create a more loving and fun experience for themselves and their friends and families, then that’s what I want to do.

What books and/or blogs are you reading right now?

The most incredible book called Things That Are by Amy Leach. It’s a work of non-fiction and essays about the natural world. It’s so beautiful and inspiring. It fuels my whole day. Essays are my favorite form and I love Annie Dillard, Wendell Berry, Robert Hass. I don’t read a ton of blogs but I do love The Yellow House, Poor Man’s Feast, and BrainPickings.com.

Who’s in your community?

I’m really lucky have stumbled into the Chez Panisse family; it was my first point of entry into the food world. However, it’s been very important to my work to step outside of that, so I work with a lot of great young journalists, including my friend, Novella Carpenter, who’s been a great guide to me as a writer. In the Bay Area food world there’s an unfortunate division of people who work in food for pleasure and people who work in food justice and I’ve tried hard to straddle both worlds. I feel one will help the other. I’ve tried my best to understand the food landscape. The women at City Slicker Farms, People’s Grocery, 18 Reasons, they’re my community. I’m also deeply inspired by the natural world and anyone with a sense of craftsmanship, so my community also extends to surfers, woodworkers, artists, musicians and the like.

What are your commitments?

To good food and deliciousness. To taking care of people around me and the natural world and doing my best to have a really good time! And, to learning as much as I possibly can.

What are your goals?

To finish my book on time. To make the best possible book I can make so I can inspire and teach as many people to cook as possible. I’m trying to be really single-minded right now.

What does change look like to you?

I’m super inspired by Howard Zinn’s words, “Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” And I believe that wide-scale change will happen when many people make little, positive changes in their habits.

Regarding the practicalities of enacting change, what planning is involved? What kind of outreach?

Cooking is my tool. I work with people to understand their insecurities and encourage them to practice. Really, it comes down to encouraging and empowering my audience so they feel they can be a part of the change or even to make small changes in their own lives.

What projects and people have you got your eye on or are you impressed by?

Shakira Simley with her Public Label of preserves and pickles and her community outreach work at BiRite Market. Elissa Altman who writes for Poor Man’s Feast, everything she does is so thoughtful and interesting. I eat up every word she puts out. Andrea Gentl is an incredibly thoughtful food photographer I am obsessed with. Tamar Adler is a constant source of inspiration. I’m really looking forward to People’s Community Market changing the way West Oakland Eats. And my friends Sarah Ryhanen and Nicolette Owen, with their amazing work with flowers, inspire me on a daily basis.

Where do you see the state of agriculture/food policy in the next 5-10 years? Is real policy change a real possibility?

For me it goes back to my idea that change comes from people’s habits and people wanting change. I’m not sure it can come from the top. I think things are going to get worse before they get better. I think a lot of people aren’t informed and before problems show up on their front door, they won’t do anything. So, I’m not sure I believe that policy change will happen until the people demand it, and that can’t happen until more people understand the true state of things.

What does the food movement need to do, be or have to be more effective?

Unification. It’s so fragmented. There are so many factions aiming for the same thing. There are so many people not working together. If there were a voice that could unify us, that would be really powerful and really helpful.

What would you want to be your last meal on earth?

Mexican Food!! Tacos. I actually don’t care what I eat as long as I get to be surrounded by the people I love.

]]>http://civileats.com/2013/07/15/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-samin-nosrat/feed/1Faces and Visions of the Food Movement: Leigh Adcockhttp://civileats.com/2013/01/16/faces-and-visions-of-the-food-movement-leigh-adcock/
http://civileats.com/2013/01/16/faces-and-visions-of-the-food-movement-leigh-adcock/#commentsWed, 16 Jan 2013 09:41:02 +0000http://civileats.com/?p=16565Leigh Adcock is a powerhouse in the food movement. She has been executive director of Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN) since 2008. Prior to that, she was a board member for the organization for 2 years, and served from 2003 – 2008 as executive director of the Iowa Farmers Union. Leigh has been instrumental in... Read More

]]>Leigh Adcock is a powerhouse in the food movement. She has been executive director of Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN) since 2008. Prior to that, she was a board member for the organization for 2 years, and served from 2003 – 2008 as executive director of the Iowa Farmers Union. Leigh has been instrumental in expanding WFAN’s scope to a national level, increasing membership more than six-fold, increasing funding from under $30,000 to $250,000 per year, and creating successful programs such as Women Caring for the Land SM, a conservation program for women farmland owners, and Harvesting Our PotentialSM, the on-farm apprenticeship program which this grant proposal seeks to expand. She is also co-creator of the Plate to Politics project, a collaboration of WFAN, Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) and The White House Project, designed to recruit and train more rural and farm women all over the U.S. to run for public office at all levels, from the community to the White House. She grew up on a 360-acre conventional grain and beef cattle farm in northwest Iowa, which she currently co-owns with her mother. She and her husband and two teenage sons live on an acreage north of Ames, IA.

What issues have you been focused on?

Women, Food and Agriculture Network provides information for all women involved in healthy food and farming to connect, learn and become empowered to act in their communities. We exist as a network for women because 15 years ago, when we started, there was no Midwest network of women farmers. Now we have members nationwide , and try to keep our members aware of federal funding opportunities and policy. We exist for social support and skills sharing but also for policy work.

What inspires you to do this work?

Originally my inspiration came from two places. I grew up on a conventional farm in Iowa; my father was an outdoorsman and was very careful with his land. I learned about careful farming from him and a love of the outdoors. So I was always interested in the environment. As I’ve become a mom and more aware as a consumer, I’ve seen a link between heath and food, and heath and the environment. It’s a natural link for me to support people who support that.

I am a feminist. I totally embrace it. Opportunities for women in whatever field they prefer should be there and I love working toward that in agriculture.

What’s your overall vision?

That what’s now considered alternative agriculture becomes mainstream. I believe we can have healthy agriculture and a healthy environment and feed people. There is no reason why we can’t feed the planet. It can feed itself using healthy farming methods and in fact it’s the only way we can feed the world. Women must become more involved in creating more systems in the world. The more women have power in creating systems that work, the more things will change for the better.

What books and/or blogs are you reading right now?

I love to check in on Grist and Civil Eats, Huffington Post food pages, those are the three main ones. I’ve really enjoyed Michael Pollan’s work and he’s done a great job of popularizing the movement. I love anything by Barbara Kingsolver. I really liked Temra Costa’s Farmer Jane book last year. I’m also an unabashed crime novel reader too.

Who’s in your community?

My professional community exists in the groups of women who are farming, landowners and advocates all over from Europe to the U.S. In particular, the women who work in other networks:

I have two sons, one a college freshman in Portland, the other a sophomore in high school, Richard and David. My husband Ed works at Iowa State University. Family is my first priority. Regarding work, I really want to leave a legacy here of a successful organization. Coming up on five years we’ve grown from 300 to 3,000 and funding has increased almost 10-fold. I’d like to see that growth continue. Staying balanced and sane too. Funny that comes third…

What are your goals?

For WFAN it’s to keep it growing and to continue to ramp up advocacy and leadership training on a national level. We want to find the dollars to prioritize our leadership development program, Plate to Politics. Another goal is to find a way for me to continue to contribute to this work and step aside for the next leader. I’m in my early 50s and I’m ready when the time comes to make a transition smooth and positive. The new leader will have the skill set we need to take it to the next level.

What does change look like to you?

Public opinion has a lot to do with change. I particular with institutional systems like agriculture and food, change looks like more people understanding the connection between food systems and health and ecology and health. But it’s a big ship to turn. There are big interests that want to take financial advantage of this turn and like any big change those that have a financial stake will continue to find a way to keep that. Like Monsanto finding a way to have patents on organic ag. Change means making sure that the people take control of their power, by being aware of what U.S. corporations are doing to the detriment of their health. Change means they make sure they speak up. We need to continue to monitor corporations and stay vigilant so their power doesn’t dominate. As in any capitalist society, change is an educated public aware of social issues, people who stay informed and continue to care and act. The danger is that all the decisions we make are based on money.

Regarding the practicalities of enacting change, what planning is involved? What kind of outreach?

Again the key piece for our work is Plate to Politics as ag is probably the most policy dictated sector of our economy. Policy dictates what gets grown, where it’s grown, how much people get paid, and it’s often driven by corporate interests. We have to make sure the public good is protected. So all of us as individuals need to get educated and support the kind of food systems we need to see. Our outreach has to focus on educating women on what’s happening in their communities and supporting them to help digest policy language and chopping it up into bite-sized pieces. We teach them how they can do good on a mom schedule. I think when more women’s voices are heard, more policy will change for the better. Women are more community minded, they are better negotiators—this is gender-based research—women are more likely to reach across party lines, reach compromise and be effective leaders in many ways.

What projects are affiliated with yours?

We have three programs: Plate to Politics, Women Caring for the Land, and Harvesting our Potential which is our work with aspiring and beginning women farmers. We just received a grant to expand that in Iowa and Nebraska. We’ll be doing some structured networking, business planning for career exploration and more detailed week-long classes for women who already have farms. A key piece that’s been missing is training the mentor famers. We will give them training to understand labor law, how to teach, workers’ comp, conflict management, etc. We’ve had a cohort of women who’ve been hosting apprentices for years and doing a really fine job but they’ve had to learn this on the fly, so we want to teach them how to minimize their risk. We’re adapting the Cultivating Success training program which we’ve found to be the best, so the author, Diane Green will help teach that and spread that curriculum in the Midwest.

We’re also hosting the 4th national conference for women in sustainable agriculture “Cultivating Our Food, Farms and Future,” Nov 6-8 in Des Moines, IA. You can learn more about it at our website, www.wfan.org.

What projects and people have you got your eye on or are you impressed by?

Where do you see the state of agriculture/food policy in the next 5-10 years? Is real policy change a real possibility?

Obviously it’s always a real possibility. Currently I’m worried there’s no new Farm Bill. The fact there isn’t one is a symptom of something that I can’t foresee getting better in the next five years—interparty ideological and money issues on the federal level. Instead of working through compromise they say “I quit.” Now that the election is behind us we’ll see what happens.

At the local level it’s exciting to me that communities of all sizes are creating food and farm plans, that they are setting aside spaces for urban gardens and farmers’ markets and paying attention to food in that way. A county here is incentivizing transition to organic with tax breaks.

In terms of the focus of WFAN, there’s now a record number of women in Congress. It’s sad that it’s so low but good that it’s a record. In the census it’s fabulous that women are growing as farmers; women are entering ag and changing it. That of those areas give me the greatest sense of hope; having those women farming and promoting healthy food systems in their communities.

What does the food movement need to do, be or have to be more effective?

Money would be helpful. I’m really heartened by all the private foundations giving to sustainable agriculture. There’s an interesting debate about whether or not to take Walton Family Foundation money but just the fact that Walmart is investing in helping women of color, particular in the Delta states to help get products into their stores is great. Resources are vital. Continuing to work in collaboration; we have to collaborate because resources are scarce. We need to collaborate in a smart way, locally and federally and to present a fairly united front in some key areas.

What would you want to be your last meal on earth?

A beautiful locally grown pork tenderloin, braised in my husband’s home brewed beer served with a bunch of diced locally raised winter vegetables.

]]>http://civileats.com/2013/01/16/faces-and-visions-of-the-food-movement-leigh-adcock/feed/3May 2013 Be a Positive Force: A Civil Eats Year End Story Round-Uphttp://civileats.com/2012/12/31/may-2013-be-a-positive-force-a-civil-eats-story-round-up/
http://civileats.com/2012/12/31/may-2013-be-a-positive-force-a-civil-eats-story-round-up/#commentsMon, 31 Dec 2012 09:00:06 +0000http://civileats.com/?p=16374Happy end of 2012! Let’s put all that behind us, shall we? After a year that included arguably more food mishaps and misdeeds in history, there is clearly no time like the present to voice what we the people really want for our families, friends, and our planet. Corporate greed has gone too far and the need... Read More

After a year that included arguably more food mishaps and misdeeds in history, there is clearly no time like the present to voice what we the people really want for our families, friends, and our planet. Corporate greed has gone too far and the need for grassroots, community action is greater than ever.

The time has come, really it has. At the risk of sounding very West Coast, I’d like to quote my yoga teacher the day after the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings: “Now is not the time for you to figure out your purpose,” she said, “It is simply time for fierce love and kind action.”

So what does love and kindness have to do with the food movement? Well, it’s a good place to start. I once heard that love is giving what is needed. It’s as easy as offering up your space in the coffee line even when you’re in a rush to telling your representative, senator, supervisor, superintendent or boss that you will no longer tolerate policies that are inane, insane, and downright harmful to humans and the earth (GE Salmon, really!?). It’s cooking a meal with friends and family or teaching a young person to stir the pot. It’s as simple as supporting school and community gardens or shopping at your local farmers market.

Whatever you choose to do, the clear way towards change is action (money helps a lot, too). Every day, in every way, we hold the power to be kinder and more loving towards each other, our planet and our future.

One act of love we here at Civil Eats perform daily is to volunteer our time so that independent reporting on the American food system can continue. Our intention remains to educate and empower you to act – wherever you may live.

We have many people to thank for our fourth full year at Civil Eats. First, we thank our more than 200 contributors who make this “community supported blog” all the more engaging and informative. Thank you to our donors. With their support we hired Southbend designer Jeff Fassnacht to give the site a facelift. (Thanks Jeff!)

We thank co-founders and Editor-in-Chief Naomi Starkman and Managing Editor Paula Crossfield for their tireless work to keep the lights on and for their contribution to the creation of the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Thanks to their efforts, writers are being paid for investigative reporting on critical food, ag, and environmental stories.

We also want to thank former Deputy Managing Editor Stacey Slate and current Deputy Adrien Schelss-Meier for their help. Our interns Arielle Golden and Jezra Thompson joined the team in 2012. We thank them for their reporting and enthusiastic assistance.

We are humbled by our readership stats. Since our 2009 inception, Civil Eats has had more 2.5 million pageviews, with clicks coming from decisionmakers in Washington, D.C. and ordinary citizens across the nation. Thank you.

Finally, we want to thank our collaborators and supporters. This year we cross-posted pieces from heavy hitters such as: Consumers Union, PEW Research Center, Environmental Working Group, Anna Lappé, Grist (Thanks to intrepid editor Twilight Greenaway), Lettuce Eat Kale (Thanks, Sarah Henry), Pesticide Action Network, CUESA (Thanks, Brie Mazurek), Cooking Up a Story, Michele Simon’s Appetite for Profit, NRDC, Food Safety News, Center for Food Safety, Food and Water Watch, EcoCentric, and many others that work to communicate the efforts of the thriving good food movement. Thanks also to the team at Shutterstock for allowing us the use of photos that help tell our stories.

We posted many good stories this year, too numerous to mention. However, we’d like to highlight some of our favorite food news of 2012, each original to Civil Eats.

4. We love a good book. Urban farmer and advocate Jason Mark wrote a beautiful piece on farming guru Masanobu Fukuoka’s posthumous Sowing Seeds in the Desert. He explained that the book “excels as another primer on Fukuoaka’s Zen Buddhism-inspired ideas of re-conceiving our relationship with the natural world.”

5. Adrien Schless-Meier told the story of one farm incubator program that’s making a difference in Georgia.

6. In August, we received an urgent email from the dairy community on the passing of activist Bryan Wolfe, whose policy work was at a critical juncture for the future of the sustainable dairy industry.

7. Frequent contributor Kristin Wartman reported on why Anthony Bourdain may have been right to call Paula Dean the “worst, most dangerous person to America,” after Dean came out as a diabetic then proceeded to promote her unhealthy food and support the pharmaceutical industry.

9. Civil Eats showcased more visual reporting this year. The video, “Labels Matter,” is the result of collaboration between the Just Label It campaign and Rob Kenner’s new project, FixFood; our announcement of it was the most commented on piece of 2012.

10. We covered many stories regarding California’s Prop 37 (Just Label It). As a sign of the sincere efforts of concerned eaters, Naomi Starkman announced that a record-breaking one million Americans called on the FDA to label genetically engineered (GE) foods.

]]>http://civileats.com/2012/12/31/may-2013-be-a-positive-force-a-civil-eats-story-round-up/feed/0Faces and Visions of the Food Movement: Adam Brockhttp://civileats.com/2012/12/04/faces-and-visions-of-the-food-movement-adam-brock-2/
http://civileats.com/2012/12/04/faces-and-visions-of-the-food-movement-adam-brock-2/#commentsTue, 04 Dec 2012 09:15:28 +0000http://new.civileats.com/?p=15996Adam Brock is an urban permaculturalist currently serving as Director of Operations at The GrowHaus, a nonprofit food justice center based in a half-acre greenhouse in Colorado’s most polluted zip code. He is a graduate of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a concentration in Ecological Design and has been active as an urban... Read More

Adam Brock is an urban permaculturalist currently serving as Director of Operations at The GrowHaus, a nonprofit food justice center based in a half-acre greenhouse in Colorado’s most polluted zip code. He is a graduate of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a concentration in Ecological Design and has been active as an urban agriculture practitioner and advocate since 2008. Adam is a member of Denver’s Sustainable Food Policy Council and collaborates with numerous sustainability- and social justice-oriented groups in the Denver area.

Adam’s passion for permaculture design extends into creative endeavors, including a sincere effort to create a regionalized cuisine in Colorado and work with hip hop artists to communicate good food ideas.

What issues have you been focused on?

Our work at The GrowHaus is about creating a hub for new ways of relating to our food, particularly in our neighborhood where the food system is pretty much broken. We believe in a holistic model that tackles food production, food distribution and food education simultaneously to rebuild our food system from the ground up.

Permaculture is a big part of our mission and organizational culture – we teach permaculture classes for all kinds of people, and it informs everything from how we grow food to how we relate to our neighbors.

What inspires you to do this work?

What keeps me excited is seeing firsthand the change we’re making in people’s lives – especially young people. We’ve worked with some of the same neighbors for years; we’ve seen people take on cooking and permaculture as a career path and watched it become a core part of who they are and how they want to transform their communities.

Even on a one-time basis, there’s an amazing transformation that takes place with the school groups in our service learning workshops. When they come in, they may be skeptical, but then they taste lettuce out of our aquaponics system for the first time and you can see the change happen right in front of you. Once they get to work, they get right into it and leave inspired.

What’s your overall vision?

At The GrowHaus, we say it’s about creating communities where everyone has the means to nourish themselves. We take that literally – people being able to feed themselves – but we also see it as empowering people to express themselves and their culture fully, to have meaningful employment related to what they love.

What books and/or blogs are you reading right now?

One of my permaculture mentors, Peter Bane, came out with a book called The Permaculture Handbook just last year. It’s a great guide to implementing permaculture design practices in urban and suburban areas.

The Empowerment Manual by Starhawk has also been inspiring to me recently. It’s about applying permaculture ideas to working with collaborative groups.

On the fiction tip, The Wind-Up Girl by Paulo Bacigalupi is a fascinating sci-fi book that explores what happens to people after the oil contraction, after people get back on their feet in Bangkok in the year 2200.

Who’s in your community?

I try to think of my community in the broadest way possible. Living in a diverse place like Denver, I try to make connections among all the different kinds of people that live here. Two very different but close communities to me are the rural farmers in the High Plains Food Co-op and a community of spoken-word and hip-hop artists in town who make sustainable food accessible to folks who wouldn’t read a blog or download a TedTalk.

What are your commitments?

I think of it in terms of the ethics of permaculture: Take care of your eco-system, take care of the people in your community, and re-invest the surplus you have (time, energy or money) into the health of the first two things. I let those ethics drive my work and hold me accountable. They help me walk the talk.

What are your goals?

At The GrowHaus, we’re working on finishing up our commercial aquaponics system, one of the largest in Colorado. We also just got a USDA grant to create a weekly food box program to get healthy food to people in the neighborhood at an affordable price.

Another goal I have personally is to take the local food concept to the next level with what I call “bioregional cuisine.” Here in Denver, we’re in an almost desert, so I’d love to see us create a food culture that embraces foods which actually make sense to grow here. In a couple generations, I could see species like quinoa, sorrel, bison, currants, or Jerusalem artichoke really forming the basis of our diets here.

What does change look like to you?

Ultimately, I feel like I’m helping to create a society that actively restores soil quality and bio-diversity by just going about its business. It means re-organizing our physical structures like transportation, as well as invisible structures like our political and economic systems. It means embracing our culture and sense of place. And it means adopting culturally-appropriate diets rather than pretending we live somewhere like California.

Regarding the practicalities of enacting change, what planning is involved? What kind of outreach?

It’s important to think big and start small, doing what you know you can accomplish with the resources you have and the people with whom you’re connected. You’ve got to deeply understand your community – let go of your ego and really listen to what people need. Then, use the skills you have to deliver on that need. One strategy that I’ve found helpful is cultivating cultural translators – people who can take ideas that may not immediately relate to someone and communicate them in a way that speaks to where they are, in a way they feel comfortable with.

What projects are affiliated with yours?

The GrowHaus is just one part of an eco-system of amazing work happening here in Denver. There’s Colorado Aquaponics, whom we helped incubate as a small business years ago and is now a national leader in this technology.

I teach every year at The Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, where they are growing tropical plants in greenhouses above 7200 feet with low-tech solutions and no fossil fuels.

There’s also a great group here in Denver called Going Green Living Bling who make eco-conscious hip hop. They take the message to schools all over town and get kids interested in gardening and eating right.

What projects and people have you got your eye on or are you impressed by?

One of the projects I’ve always admired is Planting Justice. They do a lot of work in the East Bay and work with residents there and inmates in Oakland. They’ve come up with an amazing model combining urban agriculture and social justice.

Where do you see the state of agriculture/food policy in the next 5-10 years? Is real policy change a real possibility?

Yeah, I think so, but we’re not quite there yet. Obviously Prop 37 was a real bellweather. It showed there’s a lot of public support, but it seems like we don’t have the bucks we need to fight the misinformation out there. I’m sure a lot of people are learning lessons on how that went down. I’m not too much of a policy person but I can see from the sidelines that we’re coming really close to influencing how our country makes decisions that impact the food system.

What does the food movement need to do, be or have to be more effective?

I think it just needs to keep doing what it’s doing. Every time I went to a CFSC conference I was always humbled by the incredible work happening all over the country. I would go thinking I had some new insight to share and then I would meet all kinds of people who were three or four steps ahead. There are thousands of us involved in this movement in a grassroots way – the next step is joining forces and showing the rest of the country that we mean business.

What would you want to be your last meal on earth?

Well, the Thanksgiving meal I just ate with my housemates was pretty tough to beat. We ate tilapia from our aquaponics system, lettuce from The GrowHaus and fresh berries, a few pies. It was pretty great.

]]>http://civileats.com/2012/12/04/faces-and-visions-of-the-food-movement-adam-brock-2/feed/0Faces & Visions of the Food Movement: Denise O’Brienhttp://civileats.com/2012/10/10/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-denise-obrien/
http://civileats.com/2012/10/10/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-denise-obrien/#commentsWed, 10 Oct 2012 09:00:50 +0000http://civileats.com/?p=15540Denise O’Brien is a farmer and community organizer from Atlantic, Iowa. She has farmed with her husband, Larry Harris, for 37 years in the southwest of the state and maintains 16 acres of fruit and vegetable production. Denise also raises turkeys and chickens for market. For over 30 years Denise has helped develop agriculture policy... Read More

Denise O’Brien is a farmer and community organizer from Atlantic, Iowa. She has farmed with her husband, Larry Harris, for 37 years in the southwest of the state and maintains 16 acres of fruit and vegetable production. Denise also raises turkeys and chickens for market.

For over 30 years Denise has helped develop agriculture policy on the state, national and international level working specifically on local food systems and conservation issues. She is the founder of Women Food and Agriculture Network and recently returned home after a year working as an USDA agriculture adviser in Afghanistan.

Denise has spent years as an activist farmer, raising children and crops, milking cows and being politically engaged. Now, she wants to restore prairie, save seeds, support women landowners and encourage the next generation of women activists.

What issues have you been focused on?

I’ve been an organic farmer now for 37 years. My whole focus for almost all those years has been dreaming about a better world and better agriculture. I didn’t grow up a farmer; I married one. There was something in me that was drawn to working the land. I was born with genes or something that steered me towards farming. For the years I’ve farmed it’s been about taking care of mother earth and leaving her in better condition. I’ve learned most everything about farming from my husband and during the time of learning I was always drawn towards the fact that women don’t take credit for what they do in a farming situation. I’m talking about the older generation of women who were raised on farms and know all about farming like men but always defer to the man and say they are just a “farmer’s wife.”

So my focus, while it’s been organics and local food, always comes around to women’s role on a local, state and international level. If women had a seat at the agriculture decision making table, the landscape would look differently.

There’s been an emerging issue of women’s land ownership. In the Midwest they own at least 50 percent of the land, most of that is rentable farmland. Who makes the decisions? So we started helping women dream about what to do with their land.

What inspires you to do this work?

To encourage women to talk about their ties to the land in a setting where men aren’t always included. There is a real need for that. Internationally 55-95 percent of the world’s food is grown by women. I wanted to dig in and see what women are doing because they are underrepresented; much more involved than what they get credit for, especially in the US. I’ve always been about quality and equity. I’m one of those people who looks at organization’s Boards of Directors or corporations or non-profits to see what percentage are women and it’s consistently negligible.

What’s your overall vision?

That the landscape changes. Women would take responsibility for the assets they own, the farmland, and make decisions based on their own dreams. Women want natural resource and conservation management and families on their land. If women’s voices were heard we’d have a different landscape; buffer zones, there would be less soil loss, more families on the land. Here in the Midwest where industrial agriculture rules, I keep thinking “wow, this would just look so different if women were in charge.”

What books and/or blogs are you reading right now?

I just got done reading are Gathering by Diane Wheelie who started Seed Savers with her husband. It was really inspiring. We come from the same generation and have had similar experiences. Another book is The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food,and Love written from the point of view of an urban women who falls in love a farmer and takes a journey with him.

As a consequence of reading those books I’ve focused in on what I want to do with the rest of my life. I’ll be 63 soon and have had the great privilege to be a farmer. I want to finish my life out with a dedication to women in agriculture, restoring prairie and seed saving.

Who’s in your community?

I’m real isolated in my physical community and what draws me is that I grew up here. There’s a generation of people that I really admire. My broader community of women activists moves me. Joan Gusow has been amazing for food and nutrition guidance. Women like Kathy Ozer, Executive Director of the National Family Farm Coalition. She has worked diligently for years with unbelievable dedication to family farmers. Local women, women in Iowa, that have meant a lot to me, like Mary Swallow Holmes with conservation, Jean Eels a county soil commissioner, Laura Krouse and Susan Jutz who are single women farmers. The people most endearing to me are in my mother-in-law’s generation; they worked tirelessly with no recognition. I look at them with them with respect and admiration.

What are your commitments?

To write a book. I feel responsible to tell my story because it’s been a pretty incredible life. Through all of these years of activism I have raised children and crops, milked cows and have been politically engaged. I’ve been privileged to travel the world; I’ve been in the presence of Presidents and celebrities and I feel strongly that we can grab life by its fullness. My commitment is to pass that on to younger women who are farming or food processing or even my daughters who didn’t stay on the farm but are interested in cooking, eating and having good food.

To encourage and be the cheerleader for future generations of girls and women activists; not to ignore the boys and men, but they have a leg up and they were born with that. You have to stand up for what you believe in and you can’t expect the world to change without your one’s own effort.

What are your goals?

On my farm: to build a high tunnel to grow crops to market. To restore prairie; ninety-eight percent of Iowa was prairie but now it’s more like two percent. To write this book to engage women starting out and that need encouragement. To draw out those women who own the land now and to encourage them to make decisions about the legacy of their land. Finally, to impact change in the monoculture of corn and soybeans. To change the landscape of my state to a more regenerative caring for the land.

What does change look like to you?

A physical change in the landscape. If you took an aerial flight, the land would be greener than it is now. Cover corps would be on the land, we would lose less soil due to erosion. There would be animals on the land where they should be not in buildings isolated from their natural place. The image we get of agriculture as we grow up with the barn, the farmer, it would be that image mixed with farmer Jane and equality; contemporary ideas and progressive issues attached.

Regarding the practicalities of enacting change, what planning is involved? What kind of outreach?

The outreach is to the consumer and to those who are interested in raising a nation of healthy, smart children. All people should have access to good, nutritious food. There needs to be policy change to make permanent change. Policy plays a role in all of this. We need to run for political office or support those who are willing to run to make the change.

Awareness needs to be built. People have to take on an active role in changing policy, having local food policy councils, and living the change you want. It is not to our benefit to concentrate our work as individuals–we must work in community. The power needs to be taken away from the monied people and corporations who have strongly influenced laws in their favor. This is not an easy task.

What projects are affiliated with yours?

Navigating the Waters: Women, Food,and Agriculture Network has received funding to do work with women on water and wetland issues. I will facilitate some meetings looking at watersheds.

Another WFAN project is Women Caring for the Land. This is the empowerment work with women landowners.

Pesticide Action Network. I’ve recently joined the Board. PAN can help bring life to another vision; having teams of people monitoring the air and water where we live since industrial agriculture has become king. Gathering scientific evidence that can help us understand how chemical agriculture affects our health.

What projects and people have you got your eye on or are you impressed by?

Pesticide Action Network does impressive stuff. I always have my eye on the beginning farmer work that many organizations are initiating. The Greenhorns are wonderful; Severin and the crew of young upstarts are out there doing great innovative work. Dave Murphy and Lisa Stokes continue to needle people with Food Democracy Now and the Occupy movement.

Almost everything that interests me is in how we can revitalize and regenerate the degradation that’s happened to our land.

Where do you see the state of agriculture/food policy in the next 5-10 years? Is real policy change a real possibility?

In the 1990s when we started work on local food and organics we asked ourselves is this a trend, or a fad or is this for real? Now it’s mainstream in many ways even in Iowa. But we have to be ever vigilant of cooptation There are many, not enough yet, attacking the corporate domination of agriculture. Corporate ag is fighting back. They continue to portray farming with the pastoral images we grow up with. The fantasy of farming. Corporations own Congress so they just pay for influence. We need to continue working on good food, healthy soil, healthy kids and we’ll have to do work on all fronts, policy, raising awareness, and farming. In all the 30 years I’ve been involved someone is always trying to co-opt what we’re doing because we’re on the right path. It’s about justice! We have to bring the truth to light!

What does the food movement need to do, be or have to be more effective?

The bottom line is we have to have good funding so people can lead organizations. People like myself need to pass on our historical perspective our institutional knowledge. Those of us who hold the history need to communicate it to people who are taking over the movement and be open to new ideas and ways of doing things. The “elders” of the food movement need to step back and encourage new leadership. We have to understand that things change and are being done in different ways as new leaders and greater diversity enters the scene. We don’t need to exit but be there as mentors and advisors. Let things happen as they may. The movement is just a toddler.

What would you want to be your last meal on earth?

I would like the vegetables that are growing in the garden in the Midwest summer as we transition into Fall. A simple garden meal, eating things just as they are, a nice mix of fruits and vegetables fresh out of my garden.

]]>http://civileats.com/2012/10/10/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-denise-obrien/feed/0Untimely Loss of Dairy Activist is Call to Armshttp://civileats.com/2012/08/29/untimely-loss-of-dairy-activist-is-a-call-to-arms/
http://civileats.com/2012/08/29/untimely-loss-of-dairy-activist-is-a-call-to-arms/#commentsWed, 29 Aug 2012 09:00:22 +0000http://civileats.com/?p=15335At a time when our nation’s family dairy farmers are in jeopardy of losing their farms and the independent dairy industry is in a state of volatility due to the price of milk paid to farmers, higher feed costs, corporate consolidation in the supply chain–and what many believe is a flawed pricing strategy–it was a... Read More

At a time when our nation’s family dairy farmers are in jeopardy of losing their farms and the independent dairy industry is in a state of volatility due to the price of milk paid to farmers, higher feed costs, corporate consolidation in the supply chain–and what many believe is a flawed pricing strategy–it was a huge loss when on August 7, 2012, Bryan Wolfe, a dairy farmer and activist, was tragically killed working his haybine on his farm in Rome Township, Ohio. He was 55.

According to Arden Tewksbury, Manager of the Progressive Agriculture Organization (Pro-Ag), Bryan was a well-known and respected dairy farmer activist who continually worked to obtain a fair price for all dairy farmers. He felt very strongly that a cost of production formula should be developed (like S-1640; the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act) to ensure all dairy farmers would have a fair chance to survive this RAT RACE that many dairy farmers are experiencing.

An obituary in Ashtabula, Ohio’s Star Beacon stated Wolfe’s incredible career in both farming and activism: “Bryan was a Dairy Farmer all his life and owned and operated Maple Lane Farms in Rome, Ohio since 1980 with his wife. His passion for farming went well beyond the boundaries of his home farm and he was an avid farming activist, who served with many organizations to be a voice for the family farms over his lifetime. Among his involvement in such organizations: Vice President of the Ohio Farmers Union for four years. President of the Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula County Farmers Union for 12 years. He was a member of The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) for 10 years and served on the Executive Committee, Dairy Sub Committee, and Chaired the Credit Committee. He also spent 10 years with the Family Farm Defenders.”

Wolfe was also an active member of Pro-Ag and the American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Association. According to Pro-Ag officials, Wolfe had developed a very workable relationship with Representative Steve LaTourette from Ohio, with meetings set up regarding amendments to the 2012 Farm Bill.

“Bryan tried passionately to change the federal polices that have been destroying dairy farmers and their rural communities since they were first implemented in 1981,” said Brenda Cochran, fellow Pro-Ag member, dairy activist and Bryan’s dear friend. “He made a personal commitment to see justice done for dairy farmers, never sparing himself in the effort to do so, whether it required long distance traveling to special meetings and federal hearings, making endless phone calls, contacting politicians, or reaching out to other farmers to get their support for whatever project he was working on, all the while struggling to keep everything going on his own farm with his wife Diane.”

His final project in this effort was completion of the paper he wrote for Representative Steven LaTourette in late June. The paper, called “Time for Real Change: Overview of the Challenges Threatening American Dairy Farmers and the Role Government Must Play to Correct These Inequities” is being called “Bryan Wolfe’s ‘White Paper,’” and it has been very well received. Said Cochran: “Many of us who worked with Bryan so closely over the years know that this paper embodies Bryan’s beliefs about dairy farmers, consumers’ rights to access fresh, unadulterated, local milk and dairy products, and the federal government’s role in the dairy farmer crisis and what must be done to correct the injustices overwhelming dairy farming families everywhere.”

At the heart of the matter is a reform to the current federal raw milk pricing formula that currently does not include the dairy farmers’ cost of production.

As described in a letter to Congress written by Gretchen Main, a dairy farmer from Waterville, NY, the cost of milk sold on the market is unsustainable when compared to increased cost of feed and other farm costs necessary to producing milk; making the prospect of independent dairy farming unrealistic.

“Our advance check used to pay the feed bill, the phone bill, and the truck insurance,” said Main. “This past year it has barely covered the feed bill. In July it was $1,200 short of covering just the feed bill. I have a friend who milks 250 cows and their milk check was $6,000 short to pay their feed bill.”

Pro-Ag officials say it’s up to all of them now to work with Bryan’s associates in Ohio to help fulfill his efforts to obtain a dairy bill that would allow dairy farmers to cover their cost of production plus a reasonable profit.

“We really do not want to be a welfare class, but are pushed into it by a government pricing system that guarantees the processors a cost of production, but not the farmers who produce the milk,” said Main.

Some progressive dairy farmers have suggested they unite efforts to obtain what Wolfe wanted for all dairy farmers: To return profitability to family dairy farmers by helping them get a fair price without any form of a government subsidy. Some suggested actions that consumers and dairy farmers alike can take:

1. Support a milk pricing formula that would be based on the national average cost of producing milk.
2. Support a milk supply management program that would be implemented only when needed.
3. Urge Congress to reject the proposed insurance program that has passed the U.S. Senate.
4. Ask that a thorough study be made of the safety of milk protein concentrate and whey protein concentrate.
5. Request an end to the unnecessary imports of dairy products (especially milk protein concentrate, known as “MPC”).

This is quite a list, however if we want to our family dairy farms to succeed and Wolfe’s death to not have been in vain, it is up to dairy farmers, activists and consumers alike to take a stand for the healthy and sustainable milk supply we all want.

Main’s message is clear, we are at the cusp of potentially losing ground on the rural foundation of the American food system. “We just can’t keep up when your input costs keep going up and there is no way that you can get your cost of production, much less make any profit with the flawed pricing system that we have,” she said. “At one time there were 18 farms on this road. There was more milk produced here than in all the rest of the county. Fourteen farms on my road are gone. Two of us might sell out and one sold 35 cows just to keep going.”

]]>http://civileats.com/2012/08/29/untimely-loss-of-dairy-activist-is-a-call-to-arms/feed/3Faces & Visions of the Food Movement: Paul Towershttp://civileats.com/2012/04/18/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-paul-towers/
http://civileats.com/2012/04/18/faces-visions-of-the-food-movement-paul-towers/#commentsWed, 18 Apr 2012 16:56:59 +0000http://civileats.com/?p=14545Recently pesticide manufacturer Arysta LifeScience agreed to stop selling the cancer-causing strawberry pesticide methyl iodide in the United States. It was a tremendous victory for the 200,000+ farmworkers, farmers, rural residents and environmentalists that worked over the past several years to pull a chemical that one scientist called “one of the most toxic chemicals on... Read More

Recently pesticide manufacturer Arysta LifeScience agreed to stop selling the cancer-causing strawberry pesticide methyl iodide in the United States. It was a tremendous victory for the 200,000+ farmworkers, farmers, rural residents and environmentalists that worked over the past several years to pull a chemical that one scientist called “one of the most toxic chemicals on earth” off the market.

One of the central figures of this battle from the get-go, both behind the scenes and in the media spotlight, has been Paul Towers, Organizing & Media Director for Pesticide Action Network (PAN).

For the past decade, Paul has worked to protect communities from hazardous pesticides in their food, air, soil and water. He’s worked side-by-side with people that bear the brunt of industrial agriculture, and helped share their stories, grounded in science, with elected officials and policymakers. It hasn’t been easy. He’s gone up against the likes of pesticide and biotech corporations, oil and gas interests, and industrial food companies.

Highlighting food and environmental injustices has been a priority for Paul from an early age. He grew up in Tucson, Arizona, a state where the five C’s were imprinted on young schoolchildren: copper, cattle, cotton, citrus and climate. It didn’t take long to see that many of these industries, coupled with explosive growth, were incompatible with the desert.

Over the years, Paul has come to see his work on pesticides, food and agriculture as a means of unraveling the larger issues of building democracy and diminishing corporate control and influence. He’s focused a lot on breaking down the pesticide treadmill–the trap that farmers get caught on as they are forced to use more (and increasingly toxic) chemicals to control insects and weeds that develop resistance to pesticides.

Paul recently moved from Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay Area, but still remains connected to neighborhoods and issues in the political hub of the state. Paul was a key leader of a multi-year effort in Sacramento aptly entitled CLUCK (Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Keeping) which eventually legalized keeping egg-laying hens in the city. He continues to be involved in efforts to create more local farmers markets in underserved neighborhoods, spur more urban gardening and strengthen community organizations that collect and deliver social services.

Every one of these efforts required building political pressure to put new policies in place to allow people to grow safe, healthy and local food.

First, a word about bees. It’s widely understood that one in every three bites of food we eat is reliant on bees. In working with beekeepers across the country, including some of the largest commercial operations, I’ve learned about the dramatic losses they’re experiencing–over 30 percent of their hives each year. These losses are often termed colony collapse disorder. This is bad for all of us, especially if you like to eat things that require pollination like almonds, cherries, and blueberries–and dozens of other crops.

Increasingly, science points to this newer class of systemic pesticides called neonicotinoids as a critical factor in CCD. We filed a legal petition with over two-dozen beekeepers last month urging EPA to take action on these neonicotinoids. As you can imagine, pesticide corporations like Bayer are pushing back, trying to confuse the science.

Strawberries have been a big focus too. With strawberry season now upon us in California, many of us are getting excited to eat our share of the fruit. While the controversial fumigant pesticide methyl iodide is off the shelf, other strawberry pesticides are still widely used in California and across the country. Many rural residents and farmworkers are on the front lines of exposure, with these gaseous pesticides drifting into their homes and bodies. Many fumigants are known to be cancer-causing, neurotoxins and reproductive toxins. So we’re working with people across the country to bring their case to local, state and federal officials to phase out the use of these chemicals and invest in green, safe and cutting-edge agriculture.

What inspires you to do this work?

A lot of things inspire me to strive for an ecologically sound and socially just food system.

But more than anything it’s the injustices I see and the people who are taking incredibly courage steps to counter them. It’s the people I meet from all over the country–from Alaska to Florida, Illinois to California–who are working to ensure that their communities are safe and healthy. Last week, I had a chance to meet with a diverse group of Hawaiians who are actively working to take their food system back from pesticide and biotech corporations and the plantation system.

I’m also an expecting father. It is likely that our child is already being exposed to pesticides and other chemicals in utero. And that makes me angry. So I work to create protections and find solutions to ensure our child isn’t saddled with a toxic legacy of pollution.

As I look toward the upcoming adventure of fatherhood, the health and future of my child–very literally–is a big part of what inspires me to keep doing this work.

What’s your overall vision?

In the not so distant future, my vision is that we re-build our food and farming system to create a sustainable form of agriculture and lift up human rights to food, justice and self-determination.

What books and/or blogs are you reading right now?

I don’t spend nearly enough time reading books, including those on my nightstand. I do consume a lot of news, including newspapers and magazines from all over the country. I’m especially impressed by blogs by folks like Tom Philpott at Mother Jones, Twilight Greenaway and Tom Laskawy at Grist, Barry Estabrook, and so many others.

Who’s in your community?

Our community is large–we’ve got “network” in our name. It’s international and it’s farmers, beekeepers, farmworkers, rural residents, and everyone in between. PAN has five regional centers based in the major continents, representing tens of thousands of people and organizations. I am honored to be part of this global community of concerned and committed citizen activists.

Personally, I want my artichoke plants to thrive this year. Professionally, I want to be part of fixing our food and farming system to protect farmers, workers, communities–and children, include my own. Both are challenging, but of different magnitudes.

What does change look like to you?

It’s what Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers did and do, what Lois Gibbs and the Center for Health and Environmental Justice did and do and its what Luke Cole at the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment did and do.

Change means organized, coordinated people pressuring elected officials and decision makers–including corporate leaders–to take steps to protect health and the environment, while advancing safe solutions. The good news is that people want their communities and environment to be healthy–we just need to reach decisionmakers with our collective voice.

Regarding the practicalities of enacting change, what planning is involved? What kind of outreach?

The success of our international network over the past 30 years has taught us a few things, especially as we’ve helped broker new protections through international treaties. Change requires organizing. Organizing people and partners requires patience, time and commitment. It requires online and offline engagement, meeting people where they are and creating collaborative opportunities to advance a shared vision.

What projects are affiliated with yours?

I already described my work around safe strawberries and healthy pollinators. I also work with PAN to hold the “Big 6” pesticide and biotech corporations–Monsanto, Bayer, BASF, Dow, Dupont, and Syngenta–accountable for human rights abuses. We concluded an international trial late last year in India, documenting harms to live, health and livelihood. And the final verdict should be issued soon, so this work will continue to unfold. In addition, we’re continuing to document the harm to Midwest communities from water contaminated by the Syngenta’s gender-bending atrazine, an herbicide commonly used in corn fields.

What projects and people have you got your eye on or are you impressed by?

I’m impressed by so many people and organizations. I respect organizations that shine a spotlight on the broken industrial agricultural system, finding policy solutions, and those that are helping us get out of it. Off the top of my head, I respect organizations like the Center for Food Safety, United Farm Workers and Food & Water Watch are doing a great job of advocating for change. I also deeply respect organizations like ALBA and the California Farm Academy, who are training the next generation of farmers with cutting-edge, green agriculture.

Where do you see the state of agriculture/food policy in the next 5-10 years? Is real policy change a real possibility?

Farmers, rural residents, and consumers are demanding something different–whether it’s labeling of genetically engineeredcrops and products, phasing out the use of hazardous pesticides or investing in sustainable agriculture. We are in a moment of real possibility for a real shift in direction on our agriculture and food policies.

What does the food movement need to do, be or have to be more effective?

Political and organized. The challenges before us are large and profound, including the power of pesticide and biotech corporations. These corporations exert undue influence in the elections, lobbying, and through the revolving door with government regulators. So we, as a movement must gather our voices and be determined, creative and persistent. We can’t afford to be anything but political and organized.

What would you want to be your last meal on earth?

Anything my wife cooks. She’s got a real knack for pulling things together, including fresh ingredients from our yard and weekly finds at farmers markets. And she’d probably wrap it up in a fresh tortilla, a nod to those I use to get fresh off the line at the spot across the street after school growing up.